Elaine Fuchs

Elaine Fuchs recently identified molecular differences between healthy skin stem cells and cancer stem cells. In addition to providing valuable diagnostic markers for cancer stem cells, this work may open the way toward the design of novel therapies that can target cancer-seeding stem cells while sparing their healthy counterparts.

Dr. Fuchs is now undertaking a project aimed at uncovering new drug targets for squamous cell carcinomas. While most frequent in the skin, esophagus, and lung, this form of cancer can also occur in the breast, where it is typically aggressive, treatment-resistant, and metastatic. The Fuchs laboratory is also exploring how epithelial stem cells change with age, and whether changes in stem cells contribute to the dramatic rise in cancers of the skin and breast as we age.

Dr. Fuchs received a National Medal of Science from President Obama in 2009 and, in 2011, the Albany Medical Center Prize, America’s largest prize in medicine. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine, she recently served as president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.

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